Face-to-face , first term, 30 hours of theory.

First term
Friday from 08:30 to 10:30 at 119 Marais 2100

French.

This lecture aims at giving a theoretical and historical overview of the main political doctrines, from the Ancient Greeks to the major ideologies at the 20th century. Focusing on some political theories developed by major classical and more contemporary authors, the approach puts in dialogue conceptual history and social history. On the pedagogical side, the course ambitions, through lecture and readings, to bring the student to learn to take better notes, to complete these by the texts he/she reads, to develop a synthetic and comparative way of thinking, to put his/her knowledge in relation to others and to deepen the questions he/she is the most interested in.

For the Bachelor in History :

For the Bachelor in Information and Communication :

For the Bachelor in Modern Languages and Letters: German, Dutch and English :

For the Bachelor in Philosophy :

For the Bachelor in Political Sciences: General :

For the Bachelor in Sociology and Anthropology :

None

1ère partie : Origines de la pensée politique moderne et contemporaine
1. La philosophie de l'Antiquité
2. La confrontation de l'Ancien et du Moderne
3. Les liens entre religion et politique
2ème partie: Les doctrines politiques « classiques »
4. Les théories de l'Etat
Machiavel, Bodin, Hobbes: la souveraineté « absolue »
Rousseau: la souveraineté populaire
Locke: la souveraineté « limitée »
5. Les réactions à la Révolution française: la pensée réactionnaire et conservatrice
6. Alexis de Tocqueville et la démocratie
7. Marx: « Comprendre le monde pour le changer »
3ème partie: Les idéologies au XXe siècle (année académique 2016-17)
8. Socialisme et communisme
9. Fascisme et national-socialisme

Course description:
Anchored in history and analysis of political theories, the course aims at giving the students some definitions of political theories and ideologies. First it will identify the foundations of the modern and contemporary political thought from the Antiquity and the invention of the Polis. Then it presents and discusses some major theories of the state at the modern era from Machiavel to the Marxist criticism of the industrial society. Finally it gives an insight on some of the main ideological discourses that have marked the political history at the 20th century, first of all communism, socialism, fascism and national-socialism. It insists both on continuity and disruption regarding “classical” political doctrines such as liberalism.

Learning activities description and articulation with the course:
Learning activities will be founded on reading of texts in relation with the theories and authors covered by the lecture. Each week in the frame of a seminar in smaller groups students have to prepare one or two texts following a reading grid, in order to be able to present and discuss the text(s) together with the help of a teaching assistant.

Written examination, open questions, on theory (lecture), for 66% to 75% of the final grade, and readings, for 25% to 33%.

Raymond Aron, Démocratie et totalitarisme, Paris, Gallimard, 1965.
Catherine Audard, Qu'est-ce que le libéralisme?, Paris, Gallimard, 2009, p. 48-67.
Jean-Jacques Chevallier, Les grandes œuvres politiques de Machiavel à nos jours, Paris, Armand Colin, 1970, rééd.
Benjamin Constant, De la liberté des anciens comparée à celle des modernes, Paris, L. G. F., Coll. Pluriel, 1980, pp. 493-515.
Jean-Marc Ferry et Justine Lacroix, La pensée politique contemporaine, Bruxelles, Bruylant, 2000.
Simone Goyard-Fabre, L'Etat, figure moderne de la politique, Paris, Armand Colin, 1999, p. 5-44.
Alfred O. Hirschman, Deux siècles de Rhétorique réactionnaire, Paris, Fayard, 1991, pp. 27-38 & 239-259.
Thomas Hobbes, Du Citoyen - ou Les Fondements de la République, Paris, GF Flammarion, 1982 [1641], Section première, chapitre I-IV, pp. 89-166.
Justine Lacroix et Jean-Yves Pranchère, « Karl Marx fut-il vraiment un opposant aux droits de l'homme ? », Revue française de science politique, vol. 62, n°3, 2012, pp. 433-451.
John Locke, Traité du gouvernement civil - Les véritables origine, ampleur et fin du gouvernement civil, [1690], §§ 1-51.
Pierre Manent, Histoire intellectuelle du libéralisme, Paris, Hachette, 1987, p. 89-117 (Ch. IV: Locke, le travail et la propriété).
Pierre Manent, « Présentation » à Joseph de Maistre, Considérations sur la France (1797), Bruxelles, Complexe, 1988, rééd., p. VII-XVIII.
Olivier Nay, Johan Michel et Antoine Roger, Dictionnaire de la pensée politique, Paris, Armand Colin, 2005.
Pascal Ory (dir.), Nouvelle histoire des idées politiques, Paris, Fayard, 2010.

Face-to-face.